Trump Administration Overhauls Federal Employee Removal Rules, Ditches Longstanding Protections

Trump Administration Overhauls Federal Employee Removal Rules, Ditches Longstanding Protections

The Trump administration is executing a sweeping, coordinated administrative campaign to reshape how federal agencies discipline and fire workers. By dismantling decades-old civil service protections, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) are seeking to dramatically lower the bar for removing federal employees.

A cornerstone of this effort is a joint OPM-MSPB proposed rule (91 Fed. Reg. 40444) that would officially retire the "Douglas factors"—a 45-year-old federal framework established in the MSPB's 1981 decision in Douglas v. Veterans Administration. For more than four decades, the Douglas factors have required federal agencies to evaluate up to 12 specific criteria (such as the severity of the offense, past performance, and potential for rehabilitation) to justify why a suspension, demotion, or removal fits the circumstances of employee misconduct.

The administration argues that the Douglas factors have made federal employee discipline policies far too rigid. In their place, the proposed rule would establish a "totality-of-the-circumstances" review, significantly shorten Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) to a default 30-day clock, and limit settlement agreements that remove records of misconduct or poor performance from an employee's file.

In a major development, OPM finalized a separate, sweeping rule that went into effect on July 30, 2026. The new rule allows OPM and federal agencies to take suitability actions against current employees for post-appointment misconduct. Historically, suitability investigations and actions were reserved for pre-employment screening and applicant vetting. By extending this authority to active, post-appointment misconduct, the administration has established a powerful new mechanism to bypass traditional civil service removal procedures¹ and expedite the termination of career employees.

Civil service advocates and union leaders have raised alarms over the rapid erosion of federal workforce protections. Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), warned:

"What we are seeing is the methodical implementation of a system where nonpolitical career employees can be fired for doing their job correctly but inconveniently, and where they will have nowhere to go for a fair, independent second look. Historically, that’s why Congress created and built up the merit system of federal service over the past 150 years — to prevent political patronage, loyalty tests and retaliation against people who catch waste, fraud or abuse or who won’t rubber-stamp something of questionable legality."